My Christmas & New Year Beauty Best Bits!

So this is my first makeup-y post for a while as I’ve been so busy over the Christmas and New Year period that I decided it best to have a break rather than to rush out posts sporadically. Over the festive period I have been wearing and loving many products so I’m just going to do a quick round up of just a few of the products and/or brands that have made my Christmas time even better!

Blingtones eye shadows – These have been fantastic to use, they’re not as heavily pigmented as some shadows I have used, but they are very easy to build up a great colour and the fine, but plentiful glitter element was perfect for my New Years Eve! The shadows I used lasted well, and I got some great comments on the glittery blingy-ness of them – The Bling-tones name is perfect for the collection in my opinion and I will be swatching very soon!

ELF Brushes – I was sent the Limited Edition Sparkle 11 Piece Studio brush set to try out before Christmas, but it didn’t make it here quite in time for the gift guide due to the snow but I did get to try the brushes quite a lot over Christmas and New Year and I was actually very impressed. The brushes felt, and looked a lot more expensive than their £38.50 price tag.


I did notice a little bit of shedding when using the brushes – more so for the larger ones, but really it was a negligible amount for the amount of use. I think my favourite and most used brushes were the eye shadow ‘C’ Brush, powder brush and the small precision brush. You may be able to get this brush set even cheaper if ELF do one of their discount codes before they disappear off the site – although it’ll be a shame when they do go as I feel they’d be a great permanent addition to the ELF brand.

Alpha H – After hearing loads about how amazing Alpha H products are, I just had to try them... but it took me a little while to do so. However now I have started using a few of their products I can really appreciate just how amazing they are; even after just one use I found my skin felt so much better and my makeup, I feel looked the best it has done in a long time too! I’ll be doing more in depth reviews on the products in the coming weeks, but their product’s have honestly been a revelation to me over Christmas.

OPI 'The Show Must Go On' – When I got this polish I liked it, but there were other polishes in the Burlesque collection that I liked more when I swatched them. However over Christmas I decided to wear it as my Christmas day polish and I was totally blown away by it as I’d never really spent the time properly looking how pretty it actually is.

It’s really very bling-y, kind of foil-esque but also looks like there could be very fine glitter particles in it and as the light catches it at different angles you can see the multi-faceted tones within it too. I have actually found myself sitting and just gazing at my nails with it on, but none of the pictures that I have taken have shown it to be anywhere near as stunning as it is. I do feel it’s a very Christmassy looking polish but I don’t doubt that this will also get worn throughout the year too.

What products/brands have been rocking your worlds recently?

OPI X Factor Nails (Cher & Rebecca) - From 20th November 2010 Show!

If you’ve been following OPI on Twitter then you may know that they are the official manicurists on the X Factor, and if you don’t follow them well then now you know!

I’ve been receiving emails with details of the X Factor girls’ nails for the last few weeks and I’ve now received a few of the colours so that I can swatch and show you!

The first swatch I am showing you is Cher’s nail from last week’s X Factor (that is the 20th November) where she wore 3, yes THREE OPI colours in one go!

Now there was some confusion over her nails after the show, with some people being led to believe that they were leopard print nails, done with a nail art pen – and whilst I can see why they’d think that was the case (as from a distance you could be forgiven for thinking it), I can actually say 100% that the nail was created using OPI Glitzerland (Swiss Collection, which I’ll swatch very soon), Bring On The Bling (Burlesque Collection – swatched here!) and the new Black Shatter (Katy Perry Collection, due out in January 2011).

With flash:

I’ve done this nail using 3 coats of Glitzerland as a base as it applies quite sheer, 2 coats of Bring On The Bling and 1 coat of Black Shatter over the top – so quite easy to remember really.

Without flash (with the use of a day lamp though):

I’ve also done a few photo’s of Rebeccas nails, done in OPI ‘Royal Rajah Ruby’ although they’re not really done justice by the photo’s so I’ll try and put some more up shortly (in better light) but I’ve tried to show how the light catches the tiny shimmery flecks that this polish has. It was a dream to apply and this is showing just 2 coats of it – fab!

OPI Burlesque Collection - 10 Polish Swatches!

 

When I first saw the Burlesque range I just knew I had to have it, I was completely taken by the sparkles and shimmers of this range and thought it perfect for the upcoming party season (that is getting ever closer). I finally managed to collect 10 out of the 12 colours, which I am over the moon with – the pictures do not do it justice (partly to do with my camera phone and partly to do with my bad photography) but it does give you a bit of an idea as to what to expect.

I’ve done just 2 coats of the colours, I do think 3 would be preferable for pretty much all of them, but I said I would get this post up today so only managed to get 2 coats on – I can add a third though and update if you’d like (leave a comment if so).

I have to say, the glitters are fab! They’re absolutely perfect on their own or can be used over the top of any polish you may want to jazz up, or even layered over each other to create a variety of different colour glitter effects; I just love the versatility of them. I do recommend a good helping of base and top coat to help the polish last longer on your nails, and create a smoother finish since glitters are a bit rougher to the touch, but as far as glitters go they’re not too bad actually!

The polishes, as with most glitter polishes are a bit of a pain to remove (again, as most glitters seem to be); however they’re so worth it that I really don’t mind having to spend a bit longer removing them.

The other polish finishes are quite shimmery and glitzy, but without glitter and are SO great when being worn on the nail – they’re just a little sheer after 2 coats; an extra coat would resolve this though so it’s not a deal breaker by any means. They do look very similar on the picture, and they are a little but I’m happy that I have all of them as I do notice the difference between them especially between ‘Let Me Entertain You’ (this edges more towards a pink colour) and ‘The Show Must Go On’ (has a bit of a gold sheen to it in some lights)!

These are quite pricey (as with a lot of OPI polishes) and will set you back around £10 each (although you can get them slightly cheaper on eBay – not much though)!

 The picture below is without a flash: 

 

 With flash (glitter background as this shows how sheer some of them are):

 Without flash: